Niger, officially Republic of Niger, French République du Niger,
landlocked western African country. It is bounded on the northwest by Algeria, on the northeast by Libya, on the east by Chad, on the south by Nigeria and Benin, and on the west by Burkina Faso and Mali. The capital is Niamey. The country takes its name from the Niger River, which flows through the southwestern part of its territory. The name Niger derives in turn from the phrase gher n-gheren, meaning “river among rivers,” in the Tamashek language.

The land

Relief

Niger extends for about 750 miles (1,200 kilometres) from north to south and about 930 miles from east to west. It tends to monotony in its features, is intersected by numerous depressions, and is dominated by arid highlands in the north. Rainfall increases as one proceeds southward so that the country divides naturally into three distinct zones—a desert zone in the north; an intermediate zone, where nomadic pastoralists raise cattle, in the centre; and a cultivated zone in the south. It is in this southern zone that the greater part of the population, both nomadic and settled, is concentrated.

The highlands of the north are cut by valleys (kori) of the Aïr Massif, which is an extension of the Ahaggar (Hoggar) Mountains of Algeria, and consists of a range running north to south in the centre of Niger, with individual mountain masses forming separate “islands”: from north to south these are Tazerzaït, where Mount Gréboun reaches an altitude of 6,379 feet (1,944 metres); Tamgak; Takolokouzet; Angornakouer; Bagzane; and Tarouadji. To the northeast is a series of high plateaus, which form a bridge between the Ahaggar Mountains of Algeria and the Tibesti Mountains of Chad. From west to east these are the plateaus of Djado, Mangueni, and Tchigaï.

The sandy regions of the Nigerian Sahara extend to either side of the Aïr. To the west the Talak region includes the Tamesna area in the north (where fossil valleys are filled with moving sand dunes) and the Azaoua area in the south. East of the Aïr is the Ténéré region, covered partly by an expanse of sand called an erg, partly by a stony plain called a reg.

The plateaus of the south, which form a belt about 900 miles long, may be divided into three regions. To the west is the Djerma Ganda region. Its large valleys are filled with sand, while dallol (fossilized valleys of rivers that formed tributaries of the Niger in ancient times) descend from the Aïr and the Iforas Massif of neighbouring Mali. The central region consists of the rocky Adar Doutchi and Majia areas; it is the region of the gulbi (dried-up valleys of former tributaries of the Sokoto River) and the Tegama—a tableland of sandstone, ending, toward the Aïr, at the Tiguidit scarp. To the east the underlying rock reappears in the Damagarim, Mounio, and Koutous regions, to the north of which is the region of Damergou, consisting of clays. In the Manga region, in the east, traces of ancient watercourses appear on the sandy plain.

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